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Zambia's role in DRC talks (Editorial)
January 11, 1999
Lusaka - Time has come for Zambia to seriously reexamine both her role and
perhaps strategy as mediator in the Congo civil war.
The whole essence of mediation is to find a political settlement and end the fighting in that unhappy country. But how close is Zambia to doing that?
It seems she still is as far away from that as when she started. Her effort has in fact come to centre on seemingly endless consultations. Consultations are all right provided they have a purpose.
It does not seem from what has happened so far that these consultations are particularly focussed. They have certainly not resulted in an appreciable forward movement. The summit in Lusaka yielded nothing of substance and appeared totally premature. Despite that summit the war continued.
The proximity talks in Botswana were equally nothing to write home about. Another two meetings scheduled for Lusaka in December were aborted. Zambia's efforts seem feeble and lacking both the vigour and focus that the situation calls for. The record is in fact appalling and all this time the carnage in the Congo has gone on unabated.
Now Zambia seems once more to have seized the initiative. President Frederick Chiluba has in the past week been to Rwanda and was in Harare yesterday, hopefully this round was again not for the kind of consultations that eventually only bring the two protagonists who are not ready to talk to each other as was the case last time.
If after the summit billed for next week in Lusaka there will still be no progress, then it may be time for Zambia to stand down and allow a better placed mediator to take over the reigns and bring about the result that everybody wants to see.
It certainly will not be fair to carry on when the basic situation is not being changed by the Zambian effort.
Moreover, the ease with which Libyan leader Mummar Gadaffi, for instance, hosted in rapid succession President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and Laurent Kabila at the end of last year suggests that he may have more pull. There is therefore ample reason to believe that there could be other perhaps better placed mediators to the conflict. It requires a mediator with a lot of leverage, a lot more than questionable neutrality.
Further, Zambia lacks the kind of foreign affairs experience that the job requires. She may be trying to bite more than she can chew. Even the strategy and approach that she has adopted is questionable.
The ministry of Foreign Affairs which is more likely to have the expertise or at least some basic knowledge of how to proceed has been effectively sidelined since the beginning of the effort. Foreign affairs minister Keli Walubita had no role in the Lusaka and Gaborone summits.
Instead minister at State House Eric Silwamba upstaged him even though he has preciously little foreign affairs experience. The minister may equally be inexperienced but he has a pool of experienced staff under him.
Zambia seems interested in pulling off a deal. But the only reservoir of knowledge and skill and experience in matters of this nature the foreign ministry is being consigned to the back seat. Such basic ambivalence in the face of so serious a situation does not augur well for success. If Zambia cannot put her act together, it is better to allow others to try their skills. The ultimate goal should be peace for the Congo regardless of who the mediator is.
But certainly if after the forthcoming summit there is still no progress Zambia should consider handing over to another mediator for the sake of the long suffering people of the Congo.
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